What is inner work?

Hello and welcome everyone. My name is Heather Prince and it's great to be here today to bring you this mini masterclass. And while we're waiting for everyone to be notified that the live is up and running, I'm just shuffling these cards which I really love, and they're called The Secret Language of Color Cards. And as co-author of Vibe, which you can see behind me, our beautiful coffee table book all about how color impacts you in the world today, from the food that you eat to the color that you wear to the color of the room that you're in to the color of your outside surroundings. So So just let me shuffle these cards. And for those of you watching, please do say hello and give StreamYard permission for your name, or just add your name in the comments so that I know who is here to share this Lunch and Learn today. So the cards are shuffled, and let's see what the message is for everyone that is drawn to this live today. It's so exciting because I'm going to be sharing with you Why do you need to do inner work? What is inner work? How do you know that you need to do the inner work? We're going to share all of that, um, in a little while. Just while we're waiting for everyone to join us, please do say hi in the comments. It's great to see your comments, um, and I love to know who is joining me. Let's see what card has come out today. It's a fabulous card. It happens to be my favorite color, which is green. For those of you that know about the energy centers and the chakras, this is all about the heart chakra, unconditional love. And this green is showing you the beautiful leaves on that branch, and it's about revitalizing your nervous system. How is your nervous system? right now? How are you feeling? There's a lot going on in the world, isn't it? For those of you that are in the UK, we've got, um, the new prime minister being voted in, and there's 2 up for it right now. There's huge energy price increases, there's fuel price problems, and all of that going on right now. So how, how is your nervous system, and what can you do about it? you can certainly focus on flooding your nervous system with green rays of light. So we've got to use our super mega power of our imagination here, um, and you just direct that green light in your imagination throughout your whole spine before moving it into your heart space, and then you rotate the green light around your heart until you feel that your heart expands. It expands and relaxes and fills you up with vitality, just like plugging our mobile phone in to re-energize it. Um, and you can just, you know, say out loud, or you can say it in your mind— I'm knocking my microphone off here. Um, to release all the pressure and stress from your heart and your nervous system and to fill you up with this beautiful green light. So I hope that that helps. So, um, welcome, welcome everyone. We have just drawn the card Green to revitalize your nervous system, and we're here today because I'm so excited to share with you the red flags so that you know whether you need to work on your inner work. So let's just have a look here at the, um, the templates that I've put together for you to explain more about inner work. And any questions that you've got, any comments that you've got, anybody want to say hello Please do anything that resonates with you. Please put a comment in the comment box. So here we go, everybody.

Hello and welcome to this Lunch and Learn, which is all about what is inner work, with me, Heather Prince, also known as the Root Master. Today we will look at inner work is at the very core and foundation of healing your life. Without it, we're wasting our time. There can be no purging, healing, transformation, and awakening without inner work. Do you want a meaningful path to follow? Do you want to leave a legacy of light and love? The most worthy path, in my opinion, is inner work. It complements, empowers, and enriches everything you do in life. But here's the thing, although inner work is such a worthy path, it's also a path we're secretly horrified by. This subconscious disgust that we have towards any form of inner exploration is universal. It's something you'll need to understand well if you're a serious spiritual seeker wanting to do the work. So you may be wondering, what is inner work? Inner work is the psychological practice of diving deep Into your inner self for the purposes of self-exploration, self-understanding, healing, and transformation. When we do inner work, we're shining the light of awareness onto our inner landscape, which is composed of the various layers of our mind— the conscious, subconscious, and unconscious realms. Your inner self consists of your hidden feelings, memories, thoughts, beliefs, prejudices, wounds, shadows, and other mental or emotional conditions that influence your ability to transform and feel whole at a core level. By doing inner work, you'll be able to move past fears, Limitations, addictions, depressions, loneliness, and the feelings of unwholeness that tend to plague us as human beings. So let's have a look at some red flags. You feel lost in life. You don't know who you are anymore. You feel lonely and like an outsider looking into the world. You frequently get into fights with others. You're always people pleasing. You're not confident being yourself. You have low self-esteem. Your thoughts are almost constantly negative and self-critical. You feel constantly unmotivated and flat. You're going through a dark night of the soul, or what some would call a spiritual crisis. Do any of those resonate with you? Now let's look at some more red flags. You suffer from chronic health issues. You can't sleep properly. Life doesn't feel real. You feel a sense of hopelessness. You feel a sense of emptiness. You have fits of intense anger or sadness. You believe that the world is against you. You struggle to trust others or yourself. You keep repeating the same mistakes. You keep attracting the wrong people into your life. You're self-destructive and self-sabotaging. You have a strong drive toward addiction. You have many strong emotional triggers. You struggle with high levels of anxiety or panic. You want to be alone all the time or around others all the time to escape yourself. The more signs you can relate to, the more you need to do inner work. We'll explore some inner work paths in the following slides, but of course, keep in mind that many of the above red flags that I've mentioned are symptoms of mental illness. And by all means, seek out a professional therapist who can help if you suspect something is more serious. Inner work is a vital complementary practice. Why are most people terrified by inner work, and why and how is this the case? You know, it's a vital complementary practice. That is just as essential as sleeping, exercising, or doing anything that genuinely helps you at a core level. And it may sound ridiculous, but the truth is that people feel repelled and horrified by inner work on an unconscious level. So why are people terrified by this inner work? I mean, we've only got to just look at the world. We've explored the solar system and distant galaxies more thoroughly than the depths of our own oceans. We know more about how things mechanically work rather than the life force that animates them. We know more about fighting against enemies outside of ourselves than we know about facing the so-called enemies that are within us. The reality is that going deep terrifies us. We'll more readily point the finger of blame at others, at life, at God or reality and adopt the victim mentality than dare to give ourselves a good honest look in the mirror. We'll more readily go to war and fight other people than look within ourselves for the source of our own suffering. And in some cases, we prefer to die in stubborn ignorance than admit we're wrong, faulty, fooled, or responsible for our suffering and the pain of others. Our egos are fragile, neurotic, and power-hungry. So inner work is like Superman. It's like Superman's kryptonite. to this fabricated ego self that we carry around. And is it any wonder that we're terrified by it deep down? Inner work may superficially look lavish and poetic and mystical, but when you get into the heart of it, it's a bone-crushing, gut-wrenching journey of blood, sweat, and tears. You aren't playing with crystals. And singing cute mantras while doing inner work. Although with respect, those things can be complementary and help in their own way, I'm a huge fan of the energy and magic within the crystals and with using affirmations. But the truth is, inner work in its very essence is about placing truth and the desire for freedom love above all else. It's about allowing yourself to be called out, torn down, burned, and built back up a thousand times over, because inner work is a process of eternal death and rebirth. It never stops. We are always learning and evolving. When we give ourselves over to inner work, we're on a quest to step into all that we can become We're on a journey to face our most gruesome shadows, to embody our most divine light, and to experience oneness. To put it simply, it's a bit of a bumpy ride. When you're able to follow your instinct and intuition, to see clearly, make wise choices, and protect yourself from those who seek to prey on you, the path becomes more clear. Your inner work doesn't have to be a terrible ordeal. Remember that no matter how painful it feels, the phoenix always emerges from the flames. In other words, no matter how bad things get, take comfort in knowing that the pain is a catalyst for deep spiritual transformation. Finally, I want you to understand that the very nature of the ego means it will always be against inner work. It's your soul that drives you towards inner work, so you'd do well to learn how to distinguish between the voice of fear, the ego, and the voice of your intuition, the soul. So here are the top 3 inner work pathways that I recommend on the spiritual awakening journey. The first one is self-love because self-love is one of the more gentle and approachable inner work paths, but that doesn't dilute or negate its importance. Self-love can lend itself to being shallow or unnecessarily self-indulgent in the wrong hands, but with the right training, self-love can go bone deep and genuinely transform you at a core level. And for those starting off on the inner work journey with the Fearlessly Moving Forwards method, I always recommend self-love as the first module after working through the introduction. Without building a good relationship with yourself, the other forms of inner work may feel too intimidating or too difficult. Now, one of my favourite forms of self-love, because I'm a big Louise Hay fan, is mirror work. And mirror work quite simply involves using a mirror to clearly see your insecurities and fears. It also connects you with the deeper essence of yourself that is full of unconditional compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance, which is your soul. And when I've done this in retreats, we've had lots of tears, but we've had loads of breakthroughs too. So it's very powerful to do. And the second one is inner child work, which is a form of inner work that is involves examining your childhood wounds, your fears and beliefs. To differing degrees, we all carry a wounded inner child, and our job as adults is to reconnect with this childlike part of ourselves, excavate old limiting childhood beliefs or fears, and integrate this delicate part of ourselves back into our personality structure. Your inner child is a source of tremendous creativity, joy, spontaneity, love, and wisdom. However, at the same time, your inner child can be a source of illogical obsessions, unshakable fears, neurosis, self-sabotaging behaviors, and limiting self-beliefs. So inner child work can rile up a lot of unfinished business. And if you had an abusive childhood, you may feel a sense of disgust or looming fear towards this work, and, and many of my clients do, or even towards your inner child. But we do the work very, very gently with a full explanation about what, what you're doing and a gentle visualization meditation that will help heal the inner child. And finally, the shadow work. At the deepest level of the inner work process is shadow work, and this form of inner work is the most complex, elusive, and may feel intimidating of all. And with shadow work, we are literally exploring the darkest places of our psyches that we deliberately suppress, deny, and disown each and every day. And we all know what lurks in the shadows. Yes, you know, the spine-chilling stuff of nightmares, but shadow work is the practice of exploring your inner demons, and within your shadow lurks everything that has been outlawed or deemed taboo, bad, ugly, and unacceptable by your parents and society. Your shadow self contains all that you are secretly ashamed about and disgusted by within yourself and the simplest way and the easiest way is to have a clearing of your Akashic Records which clears the ancestral shadows that may have ignited in your DNA such as betrayal, abandonment, abuse or something else alongside all the other things that I've mentioned because this is the first thing that I do with clients one-to-one confidentially before they even start the Fearlessly Moving Forwards Method, which also includes practices such as meditation, mindfulness exercises, self-inquiry, visualization, and introspection, which all wonderfully supplement your inner work journey. So where do you start? Ultimately, All 3 forms of the inner work that I've just mentioned melt and morph naturally into each other, and inner child work involves a certain level of shadow work. Shadow work is a form of inner child work, and self-love is involved in all forms of inner work. So I hope, however, these distinctions have made things clear for you. Hopefully you now have a clear path to follow that you can invest your time and energy into, and again, if you're hesitant, let me say enthusiastically, yes, it is worth it. Um, I would never have healed after my divorce as profoundly as I have now if it wasn't for the inner work that I did, and many people that I have worked with across the world can testify to this as well if you read the testimonies on my website. So my question to you is, what type of inner work are you doing now, and do you have any questions? And please put them in the comments. And I'd like to thank you all so much for watching. If you're watching live, please do comment. If you're watching the replay, put hashtag replay. And if you wish to join my Fearlessly Moving Forwards Facebook group, I will send you a bundle of freebies, um, and the link is there below. But if you want me to send it to you, I will just message me. And if you liked this content, please do like and share. And if you wish to email me confidentially, it's heather@heatherprince.co.uk. And if you want to check out the website, it's www.therootmaster.com.

And there you go, that is all about the inner work. So did anything resonate with you? Please do put in the comments, um, and if you've got any questions, put them in the comments and I will do my best to come back to you as soon as I can. It has been such a pleasure to share with you the red flags. There was quite a lot of them, wasn't there, to show you whether or not you need to actually focus on doing the inner work. And that, you know, I've been honest because I um, working from the heart and honesty is a core value of mine, that it's a bit of a bumpy ride because you're looking at stuff that might feel uncomfortable. But I will be there with you every step of the way if you choose to do the inner work. Or perhaps you're already doing some inner work. I'd love to hear about that, and is it working for you? And, uh, it would be great to receive your feedback. I would be so, so grateful. And I'm very thankful for all of you that have joined me live here today, and to those of you that will watch the replay. Remember to put hashtag replay and tell me whether what I've shared, um, has, um, rung a little bell with you. And if, as I say, you've got any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. And if it's confidential, you can, as I've shown you here, email me, um, and go to my website and book a free clarity call with me. So thank you so much, sending you all so much love, and, um, it's been a pleasure, and I look forward to seeing you here same time, same day, Tuesdays 12:30 for the next Lunch and Learn. If there's anything you particularly wish to know about, please do Let me know and I will do that for you. Take care, everyone.

Bye-bye. Bye.